This paper adds to a growing body of literature which views global citizenship education as part of a broader social and cultural process of subjectivity production. Rather than focus on global citizenship in relation to pedagogy or curriculum content, as much of the previous research literature has done, this paper examines it in relation to the…

This paper reports on a year-long research study: four teachers of English, their Year 8 (13-14 year old) classes (110 students) in urban, secondary schools and a university teacher educator investigated the contexts for students to develop dialogic, exploratory talk in small groups. Assuming a Vygotskyan perspective, the study adapted a pedagogic…

In recent years, there have been concerns in the UK regarding the uptake of particular subjects in post-compulsory education. Whilst entries for Advanced level (A-level) subjects such as media studies have experienced considerable growth, entries for A-level physics have, until recently, been declining, prompting fears of a skills crisis in future…

In the democracies of today, school often have a dual role to play. Not only should they give students the knowledge they need to enter the labour market, they should also teach young people about democracy, and develop students' capacity to exercise their citizenship. A third task for schools is to enhance political equality in society by…

The concept of moderate learning difficulties (MLD) is not clearly understood in its definition and in its general use. Nevertheless, as a distinct area of special educational needs (SEN) this category has constituted about a quarter of all of those pupils identified as having SEN in England. This paper reports the analysis of findings from an…

This study examines models of variables posited to predict students' homework motivation management (HMM), based on survey data from 866 8th graders (61 classes) and 745 11th graders (46 classes) in the south-eastern USA. Most of the variance in HMM occurred at the student level, with parent education as the only significant predictor at the…

This paper considers the pupil intakes to Academies in England, and their attainment, based on a re-analysis of figures from the Annual Schools Census 1989-2012, the Department for Education School Performance Tables 2004-2012 and the National Pupil Database. It looks at the national picture, and the situation for Local Education Authorities, and…

Educational researchers, like other academic investigators, are expected to carry out research in an ethical manner. This paper draws on the author's experience of conducting a research study related to social justice, which examines intergenerational dynamics and education amongst British Asian families. It discusses the importance of…

This paper explores the decision-making processes of young people aged 13-14?years in 30 consortia across England as they chose their options for Key Stage 4 at a time when a new qualification, the 14-19 Diploma, was being introduced. It draws on data collected as part of a longitudinal national study (January 2008-August 2011) of the introduction…

Through its positive influence on teachers' classroom practices and their students' learning, effective professional learning of teachers is an important condition for school improvement. However, the Teaching and Learning International Survey reports that teachers' professional development in most countries falls short of meeting…

This paper describes how item response theory (IRT) methods of test-equating could be applied to the maintenance of public examination standards in England. IRT methods of test-equating have been sparingly applied to the main public examinations in England, namely the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), the equivalent of a school…

Beliefs influence how learners construe what they experience in the classroom and their learning behaviour. Understanding the nature of such beliefs is therefore important if teaching is to be as effective and responsive as possible. This paper reports the representations of young learners' beliefs about foreign language learning as…

A central issue in the class size debate is that while cutting class size might lead to improved teaching and learning, it is also possible that it may not if teachers do not seek to exploit the advantages of a smaller class size through an alternative pedagogy. Research suggests that teachers do not change their pedagogy when moving from large…

The aim of this study was to investigate how individuals;who had been victims of school bullying; perceived their bullying experiences and how these had affected them; and to generate a grounded theory of being a victim of bullying at school. Twenty-one individuals, who all had prior experiences of being bullied in school for more than one year,…

This paper introduces the concept of "pedagogy in practice" (PiP), referring to the immediate interaction between students' learning experiences and school's pedagogy and distinct from the pedagogy advocated "from above" by the school. We bring the concept of PiP into focus by analysing students' open-ended discourse about their learning…